Kevin, 749 Man Years of Programming and y2k

Kevin [mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net], who I believe has 0 man minutes of programming experience, continuously provides links to past and current threads and external URL's across the spectrum of issues. He had the common sense to catalog and organize information before this forum became the crowded place it is today.

Ironically, a rough calculation shows that he has saved this forum about 749 man years of research time-the same amount of man years of programming experience on this forum. Why anyone would openly admit to having years of IT experience, and particularlyIT 'management' experience, is beyond my comprehension. You should be at work right now... wearing a dunce cap.

The Unix 2038 problem is just around the corner. I suggest you hire Kevin to help you organize a plan to meet the challenge. And I suggest you do it quickly. Your organizational ability to anticipate that 00-99=FF wasn't very impressive.

PNG -- ROTL. Well, you know my attitude on this from the other thread
in question , though I'll bet you agree that Sysman's heart about this
has been in the right place.

Much though I loathe the pusillamity of today's leaders, I sympathize
with their plight in trying to decide which geek to believe TODAY
about Y2K or just about anything having to do with technology. While
we speculate about government plots, imagine how the pols must
speculate about how they ever allowed themselves and the entire world
to be held up at metaphorical gunpoint by ..... us.

Hi PNG. I don't know if you got my "Salute to Diane and Kevin" a few days ago. They are indeed our most valuable assets. So is BigDog, Mr. Cook, GreyBear, yourself and countless others here. While this is a public forum, the regulars are the ones that MAKE IT!

I have several reasons for starting that thread. FM inspired me by asking who the geeks are here. I took it to the next step, trying to get a feel for how many years of experience they have. If you read the start of the 749 post, you'll see that I feel we can use this information to try and help the DGI get it. No one is an expert on this issue, and there are many facets to the problem. I do feel that the tech GI have a better understanding of the problem than most.
-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), March 11, 1999.

Yo Kev! Keep counting! (Here's hoping that by next year you won't
have to use an abacus!) :)

PNG and Sysman - look at it from both sides - the programming experience is essential is determining whether the program "exists" - how big is it (as it relates to tha part of the solution), are there 'silver bullets", who is more likely correct: IBM or the FAA.

I am not entirely positive that a "pure programming expert" - no matter how many years experience - can better analyze the result of the failure in downstream systems. But experience in managing and working with systems - mechanical or computer - may be more important in determining the effect of any given programming failure. That is, a programmer's experience is critical in ascertaining whether a given fact put out by the government may be true or not. In analyzing the impact of a technical comment - experience may the most second most important tool brought to the discussion. (The first is critical thinking (analytical) skills.) A trucker or nurse or industrialist who has seen entire processes collapse due to a single point supply failure brings a wider view of the world than someone who can write code quickly.

It does not neccesarily take a senior, very well experienced programmer to read a glowing account by the Ag. Department and determine that if only 3 out 500 companies responded - the remaining 497 are probably not hiding good news. The ability to find a golden needle (the critical functions) of a process in the midst of a haystack is not only's a programmer's talent.

Other things are needed: your experience, for example in overseas markets, finance, corporate and political levels and skills can't be "assigned" or delegated - that has to be earned through experience.

But overall - it is neat to be able to demonstrate that, collectively, this amount of experience comes up with a very different answer than the fed'd do. Who of course, have no agenda or reason to hide the truth.

"Other things are needed: your experience, for example in overseas
markets, finance, corporate and political levels
and skills can't be "assigned" or delegated - that has to be
earned through experience."

My thoughts exactly.

Also I'd like to add that there are programmers who are "code
crunchers", their talents are narrow and specialize in putting out
code, happy with this job for years, and not perticularly interested
in expanding their knowledge and experience, and then there are the Ed
Yourdon types of programmer/writer/teacher/speaker/(insert numurous
skills here), well rounded in their intelligence and experience. The
point is the same, whether you are a programmer or not.